There is a wide array of different toys, games, and toy construction systems that are intended to entertain not only children but also adults.
One particular category of toys that is a favorite of children, especially boys, is toy cars. Toy cars are typically used on hard surfaces, such as a floor or countertop or the like. Children drive toy cars on imaginary or physically represented toy roads that are part of a broader playscape.
While there are some toys for constructing roads and playscapes for use with toy cars, these existing products suffer from a number of deficiencies, as noted below, that the present invention solves.
One particular toy product is a toy racetrack, on which a car travels along a fixed-path, semi-enclosed plastic track. Such racetrack is sold in sections and interconnects using a variety of proprietary connection pieces. This racetrack is expensive to purchase, bulky to store, cumbersome and in-the-way when constructed, and offers limited flexibility for arbitrary playscape design, particularly because vehicles travel explicitly in a single lane and the racetrack can only be assembled end-to-end in a pre-defined fashion, often in a pre-defined configuration suitable for downhill racing only. By contrast, the present invention provides the ability to construct fully arbitrary playscapes for imaginative play, is far lower cost, is easier to use, requires little storage, is not in-the-way when constructed, and is removable and disposable.
Another type of product is a plastic building and road set that, in some cases, interconnects with plastic racetrack and incorporates buildings with certain features (such as a “car wash” or an “auto lift”). This set is difficult and complex to assemble (requiring adult assembly typically), offers only a fixed play configuration, is extremely cumbersome to store, is frustrating for a small child because of its penchant for coming apart, and costly. By contrast, the present invention requires no adult assembly, is easier to use, enables the child to construct fully arbitrary playscapes for imaginative play, is far lower cost, requires little storage, is not in the way when constructed, and is removable and disposable.
Other products are elastic or carpet mats that have a pre-defined set of roads printed on the mat on which the child can drive his toy cars. Such mats are inflexible in their ability to foster creative play because they have but a single playscape design pre-printed on the mat. The plastic mats are dangerous if left unattended because they are very slippery. Carpet mats are similarly restrictive in their play value and are costly. Especially for the carpet mats, storage is a big challenge. These mats provide no construction capability, being a fixed design. By contrast, the present invention enables the construction of arbitrary playscapes, requires little storage, is not slippery or dangerous when constructed, and is far lower cost.
Currently a remote or radio control car user would need to either play with this vehicle in a large outdoor area if they wanted to use their car on a simulated track. Their other option for use is indoors, which could contain many obstacles and offers a much smaller space. The outdoor option allows for freedom to make turns, accelerate in speed and generally not disturb an indoor area such as walls or furniture inside a home or building. Many of these RC users play on man-made large tracks created of dirt or other material designed for these types of vehicles. These tracks are designed and laid out by professional racing designers and the users and owners of the vehicles would use the track to test their skill, but these professional tracks do not allow for the free-play and creative design discussed here. The RC market of toy vehicles could be designed to communicate electronically with a track beneath it and have little to no need for the actual remote control itself. The track could be embedded with readable codes that would be read by the vehicle and allow the vehicle to move flawlessly on its own. This entire change in the dynamic of play with these types of vehicles allow for users to experience creativity and enjoyment of watching their vehicle at work without doing all of the work themselves.
Slot cars also exist whereby they can drive in a slotted or carved out lane on a track and move automatically. These track designs allow for limited creativity in their layout and simply allow the user to watch a car go around and around the track on its own with no controls. The slot car vehicles on this type of track typically operate at different speeds throughout their drive around the track and have no deviation in turns and move along the exact slotted layout they are placed into on the track.
One commercially available track is available from Anki, Inc. (Anki). The track from Anki includes a working surface for the toy vehicles or mobile agents that has a two-layer system. A mobile agent is otherwise known as a toy vehicle. The track consists of a bottom layer with an intricate and secured system of machine readable codes. This lower layer is then covered with a material that is the top, drivable layer. The top layer of the Anki track is a shiny black material that is aesthetically appropriate for a car or other mobile agent to drive on similar to a real track used in racing. However, this shiny black track has no graphics, look or feel of a real road or track other than that it is black like asphalt. This track material can have straight parts as well as has curves but the top layer is only a covering for the bottom layer which not only is the design of the track but contains the codes that will allow the car/mobile agent to move and understand the layout of the road ahead. The top layer itself is not a key to or even a participant in the system that enables mobile agents to move properly on the track. The bottom layer of intricate codes leads the mobile agent to turn and control speeds while the top layer allows for the track system as a whole to aesthetically appear as a track or a road. Details of the Anki system are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,238,177 and 8,747,182, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The Anki two-layer system is constructed to show vehicles going around a track that contains hills, turns and straight sections by communicating via infrared technology on the vehicle with the coding on the bottom layer of the track. The naked human eye could see the fact that a track contains turns or uphill/downhill features, but a regular mobile agent/car would most likely flip on a turn or go too fast down a hill and fall off the track. With the readable codes and the infrared light located inside the car, the combination of these two concepts allows a car to slow, accelerate or turn so that it flows perfectly over the surface and can round the track properly. These designs allow for the user to have continuous play.
This type of system requires that an initial mapping be performed by the mobile agent(s) and in particular, each mobile agent on the track slowly drives around the track while ingesting the machine-readable codes embedded in each track segment. Once the mobile agent reads the track layout, each mobile agent can share the information with other mobile agents.
A user interface, such as a tablet or smartphone, is used to control the speed of the mobile agent and left and right turning of the mobile agent so as to allow the mobile agent to steer back-and-forth across the track. For example, a first slider is provided for controlling the speed of the mobile agent and the vehicle can be steered by tilting the user's mobile device (tablet or smartphone) on which the user interface is displayed. In particular, tilting the mobile device allows the vehicle to switch between a plurality of “lanes” that are defined on the track. It will be appreciated that the separate lanes are typically not visually identifiable by a human but instead are part of the machine-readable codes which in part uses printed markings (machine-readable codes) to define such lanes.
While the Anki track is satisfactory for its intended use, it has the following limitations:                The top layer is plain black in look and design and does not have road lines or designs of actual obstacles which could coordinate with the code layer below to give the user a more realistic view of the road lanes or cars swerving around items such as garbage, road kill, speed bumps, etc.        The track has a price to the public which can be expensive for many users.        The track is only realistic in terms of the car racing experience because the road is black, but it does not include any indicia of a real racetrack, road or off-road experience.        In addition to including no graphics showing that the track is a real track or road, the current track also contains no graphic or indicia of any obstacle which might be commonly seen on a regular road or track such as bumps, pot holes, oil spills, puddles, debris, or intentional obstacles such as spike strips. These obstacles could be used in coordination with the readable codes to allow for a car to swerve throughout its ride to avoid these obstacles making the racing process more enjoyable.        The current track due to its size and material must be built by the user and laid out in an open area. When not in use the user has two options: either leave the track in place and occupy the usable space in a room or take apart each piece and component of the track and put it away taking up substantial storage space and time, only to have to re-build the track for play at another time.        In addition, the movement of the mobile agent is fairly routine in that only the speed and turning (switching lanes) of the mobile agent is controlled and thus, the mobile agent can only effectively run laps around the track.        The track itself is not affixed to the surface on which it is laid, making it easily susceptible to jostling, disruption, or dismantling by an errant foot or hand. This is a common problem with all pieced-together track systems and in this respect are frustrating to use.        The top layer itself is not a key to or even a participant in the system that enables mobile agents to move properly on the track limiting both the visual and driving experience to that which is pre-coded in the bottom layer.        
Accordingly, there is a need for a construction system for creating a customizable play surface for mobile agents that provides a more realistic racing and driving experience where the track itself is inexpensive, more flexibly constructed for a more varied play experience, securely attached to the surface on which it is laid, and easily stored and transported, and even discarded and recycled.